Behind Passion
by Romaqueen3
Summary: Steady job, steady friends, and a steady boyfriend. Life was perfect, routine, and everything Lizzie always wanted. But life throws her a curveball and she never saw it coming.
1. I

Elizabeth Brooke McGuire impatiently tapped her Gucci clad toes against the dark pavement. Twenty minutes had passed, dinner was about to be served and where was she? She was waiting outside, a shawl wrapped around her thin golden shoulders, the hem of her black cocktail dress flipped in the wind, as it caught her golden locks and flipped them over her face.

With a frustrated groan, she whipped the locks away from her eyes and stared at the blackened streets. A sigh escaped her lips as she saw the doorman watching her.

"Madam, do you need a phone? Or would you like to call a cab?"

Elizabeth's, or Lizzie's (as she was better known), finger gently scratched her perfectly arched eyebrow. Her tongue ran over the inside of her cheek as she blew air past her exasperated red lips. She said nothing as she managed to slide her arm from the warmth of the shawl to pull her cell phone from the purse dangling from her fingers. "I've got one," she curtly told the doorman.

She pressed the familiar number and listened as it rang, and rang, and rang as it had done all night. She snapped the phone shut and retrieved her keys from her purse. She dangled them from her fingers at the doorman who had watched her the whole time she'd been out here waiting for him. "Do you think you could get my car?" The edge in her voice wasn't completely from her irritation at him, but she did nothing to correct the sharpness.

The door man studied her for a moment, realized he would be starting a losing battle and took the keys from her.

Lizzie watched as he stepped into the rain and disappeared into the garage.

The sleek silver car slid to a stop in front of her. Without a word the doorman held open the door and shut it firmly behind her without waiting for a tip. Lizzie shrugged, if he didn't want a tip she wasn't going to force it onto him.

She pulled the car onto the streets. A voice in her head was telling her to go home and just wait until he called her, but another louder voice was demanding that she drive to his house and find out what the hell had kept him. The louder voice won out and she jerked the car suddenly at a light and turned onto another street. She heard the squeal of tires and a horn blast across the night. A glance in the mirror confirmed that an accident hadn't happened, and her mind was on other matters.

She drove up the apartment building, her eyes scaling the walls until the fourteenth floor, his window.

She expected the lights to be off. What could have possibly kept him from meeting her? She expected her cell phone to ring any minute and to hear his voice apologizing profusely for standing her up.

But her expectations were shattered as she looked up at the corner apartment, _his _apartment. The lights were on, he was up there moving around.

The same soft reassuring voice told her to go home and try calling again.

The louder voice said to hell with that idea.

Once again the louder voice won out as she swung her legs out of the car, jerked the keys from the ignition, and stared towards the elevator.

"He'd better have a _brilliant _explanation for this," she muttered, turning to face the sliver doors of the elevator as they slid shut.


	2. II

The ding echoed off the walls of the elevator as the doors slid back. Lizzie stared down the long hallway. She could feel her heart pulsating angry blood throughout her veins. She took a deep breath and started forward.

The closer she came to the doorway, the more she recognized music she heard was coming from her boyfriend's apartment. She took a deep breath, trying to remember restraint. Her heels clicked on the tiled floor.

Staring at the door, her hand raised to knock, she hesitated, a small fraction of her mind still demanded that she return home, but she knew she'd already come past the point of no return.

Her fingers curled into a fist and her knuckles rapt on the hard door.

Inside she could hear shuffling, someone moving around, the music was turned down, then after what seemed to be several minutes, the door finally swung open.

David "Gordo" Gordon leaned against the doorframe. His raven curls were flatter than usual, owing to the fact that his hair was damp. Her eyes danced over his broad shoulders and toned arms revealed by the tank top he was wearing. Her eyes went on down his old "broken-in" Levis that she'd tried many times to throw out. His feet were bare. She knew from the outfit he'd had no intention of going anywhere tonight. In fact his ensemble was what he wore to lounge around the house.

"Hey Lizzie," he greeted.

She stared at his face searching for a clue he realized what he'd done wrong, but he gave no inclination. Finally, her temper won. "Don't you 'hey Lizzie' me," she snapped.

His blue eyes widened in surprise as he stared fondly at her. He said nothing but tilted his head in a way that showed she had his full attention.

"Did you forget? Or did you plan to leave me standing outside all night?" she demanded, pushing past him and strolling into small kitchen. The kitchen had only a counter that divided it from the living room and sitting on the couch she saw another friend, Miranda Snachez digging through her purse for her keys.

David raised his eyebrows in an almost amused sort of way as he leaned against the counter across from her. "Forget about what?"

Lizzie's hazel eyes narrowed into small slits. "Forget about what?" she echoed. "Did you happen to forget that tonight was the dinner party? Did you not happen to hear me ever single time I mentioned it?"

Miranda gave a short wave and headed quickly for the door. "I'll see you guys later."

Lizzie ignored her departure and kept her eyes locked on her boyfriend.

He was across the room gathering the glasses he and Miranda had been drinking from and didn't turn to her until he'd laid them in the sink. "I heard you."

Lizzie's jaw dropped as she stared at him. "Okay," she snapped. "So why weren't you there?"

David tilted his head to the side, she couldn't see his expression, but she knew that cock of his head, he was irritated. Well if he thought that he could out temper her, he had another thing coming.

But when he turned around, his expression wasn't angry, instead it was mildly calm, tolerant. "You never invited me?"

Lizzie squinted her eyes at him trying to make sense. "You just said you heard me talking about it, but then you go and you tell me that you weren't invited? Ever heard of making sense?"

He met her glare, his eyebrows raised high on his forehead. "You never once stopped to ask me if I wanted to go."

Lizzie threw her hands up and shook her head. "Oh, my bad, David. My damn bad." The small clutch for a purse she'd been holding flew across the room but she was too angry to even notice, but David's eyes followed the bag to its landing space right at his feet. "It's not as if you didn't know how important this night was to me. It's not like you could have easily figured out that I wanted you there."

"If you wanted me there, why didn't you ever ask if I was going?"

"Because you know, I was pretty sure we were past that point in our relationship. We're twenty four, not fifteen anymore."

"You take things for granted, Lizzie," he stated, finally dropping his gaze to the floor. "You take things, and people for granted. And I'm sick of it. You're not going to take me for granted anymore." He shook his head as he ran his fingers through his hair. "We're through."


	3. III

Thanks for the great reviews from the people for the first two chapters. Let me know what everyone thinks!

Lizzie's feet were curled beneath her as tears slipped from her eyes. She grabbed a tissue and wiped furiously at her blotchy eyes. She wasn't going to do this again, she wasn't going to start crying. She sniffled as she wadded up the tissue and tossed it inside the trash bin.

There was a loud knocking on the door, and Lizzie's head lulled to the side. Her mind briefly tangoed with the idea of getting up, but as she pulled the blanket tightly around her.

She stared blankly at the wall her mind going over and over the day almost four days ago. When he'd looked at her and he'd said that they were over, that he didn't want to be with her any more.

The front door clanged open. Lizzie turned slowly towards the door, Miranda strode into the apartment.

"Lizzie you can't keep doing this," she stated. She leaned across her and picked up the tissue box, then scooped up the blanket.

"Miranda," she sniffled. Lizzie wanted to hear sympathy, but during the last couple of days she'd used up all of Miranda's stock.

"No. No, no, no, Lizzie. You can't do this. Get up. We're going shopping."

"I don't want to go shopping," she whimpered.

"You're going shopping. You're going to get out of this apartment."

Lizzie buried her head in the cushions and tried to block out Miranda's voice. Everything she was saying made sense, but her heart wasn't anywhere near being in it.

"Miranda, since high school...Before high school....we did everything together! He was one of my best friends."

"And your life will go on." Miranda walked past her and went into the bedroom. She pulled open the closet doors and began to riffle through the clothes. "Guys will come and go and I'll admit I believe he acted like shit, there was no reason for what he did."

Lizzie drug herself into an upright position, the blanket still draped around her shoulders. Once again she replayed the moment in her mind, then she had an usual moment of clarity. "Miranda, you were there that night..."

"No, Lizzie. We're not going to do that. You're not going to put me in the middle!"

"After everything he did? He never gave me anything so much as a reason. His reasoning sucked. His way to do it sucked, everything about him sucks."

Miranda simply ignored him as she placed a white pair of slacks and a bright green sleeveless shirt.

"You're not serious are you?" Lizzie muttered. "I've never even worn that top."

Miranda dangled tags from her finger. "I know, but it's time for a new start. Now, come on. It's time to get up. Let's go through the breakup routine; hair, nails, make-up, pedicures. It's over Lizzie, but it will probably work out for the best."

"I don't want it to be for the best. I want us to be us again."

Miranda laid the outfit beside her, studied her best friend. "You don't remember 'you time' do you?"

The vaguely familiar phrase sparked Lizzie's interest, but then she shook her head.

"You remember it, I know you do. You just quit doing it. Lizzie your life became all about you and David as a singular unit. You're your own person with interest outside of him. Now, get up, you're going to start living a new life, a life just for you."


End file.
